FAST-WebCrawler

What does it read?

[ismap]

Hi there,
checking my logs I once again found good old FAST-WebCrawler. Nothing new so far. And I am still indexed with my pages.
But for the first time it didn't only asked for htm(l)-files, but also for my external .js-files!
Can FAST read JavaScript? And what is it good for?
Comments appreciated.
ismap

[caine]

answering your question back to front, if a search engine can read javascript it would have quite profound effects certainly on web design and SEO.

1. all them individuals who cross themes with javascript links would suddenly lose their themed site.
2. people who prefer dhtml, would not need to add, html links to get the engine to crawl the site.
3. if all the search engines could read dhtml/javascript, then the html/css combo would be looking very unlikey to evolve much more, except where page size is the consideration.
4. I've heard of many SE's doing various beta testing on reading Javascript, though i can't say that i heard of FAST, employing it full time in their crawls.

Maybe the chaps that moderate this forum may of heard or know about Fast reading of Javascript

[Rumbas]

I'll go with caine on this one. It would have many complications. They are certainly testing a lot things and parsing a js file once in a while to spot check wouldn't seem strange, but doing it on a regular basis would be quite a task IMO.

I checked a bunch of recent logs and couldn't find any instance where they grabbed js files.

You sure it is a genuine fast bot?

[ismap]

Yes, its sure genuine FAST: 66.77.73.144. And it took five different .js-files.
But as my .js-files really don't harm (no hidden JScript-redirects or so, just statusline and location.top & stuff like that) I'm not afraid of being considered spam. Just curious :-)
ismap